Universal Declaration of Human Rights-Article 1.
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Monday, July 03, 2006

Freedom will be Back

It has been a while since I blogged. I also apologize for not being being to respond to your emails but I all do very soon. I know there is a lot to catch up with, I am missing a lot. I guess it is summer time rhythm but also I am crazy busy these days. I will be explaining later. I guess I ll be less committed after mid-July. However, I promise to be back to blogging before that!

Happy FOURTH to all my friends in the United States!!! This is not a fireworks celebration as it may seem, it is the celebration of one of the most important documents produced by humanity. It is the Declaration of Independence...

By the way, last Sunday I CELEBRATED MY FIRST BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY, YAAAAY!

13 Comments:

The 4th of July is a cause for celebration and national pride in the United States.

It should also be a time of reflection on the millions of non-caucasian Americans who were denied their basic human rights before the Declaration of independence, and for a good *200* years thereafter.

Miss your blogs and personal insights of Egypt, very enlightening and gives me hope for the progress of freedom around the world. Congrats on your anniversary too!

Anon ... interesting comments. The US is certainly not without fault but having lived (not visited) in 2 North American countries and 3 European countries in my life I feel that the US has done an admirable job of pursuing freedom for all (non-Caucasians as well) and exposing their own faults in that pursuit.

In answer to other questions, a majority of the Britons questions described Americans as uncaring, divided by class, awash in violent crime, vulgar, preoccupied with money, ignorant of the outside world, racially divided, uncultured and in the most overwhelming result (90 percent of respondents) dominated by big business.

Yeah, but you know... it's really the Bush Administration they hate, not the American People! Oh, Lord no, not that!

And I really liked this part:

A massive 83 percent of those questioned said that the United States doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks.

Which pretty much means, what? This poll was intended for non-American (and non-British since presumably they already know how much they hate us) audiences?

Thanks Britain! Look, it was all a joke gone wrong, OK? We're sorry. We won't rebel against you again! Promise!

Where I come from is irrelevant to the issue at hand.But if you really want to know I am British of African origin.

I have American relatives.

An article that claims that Brits dislike Americans is nothing more than an article that claims that Brits dislike Americans.

The 200+ year legacy of hypocrisy and human degradation and segregation and cruelty that persisted in the US against non-caucasians, in spite of free spirited legal documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, is a socio-historic phenomenon with contemorary repurcussions.

July 4th should also be a time for refelction, that the ethos of the Declaration of Independence was purposefully not applied to many Americans, based on the colour of their skin.

Being British does not mean not being constructively critical of my country.

I like what is good about my country.

I also cannot morally defend the ethically indefensible, just because it is British.

I don't understand your logic on this issue.

If anything, this blog which attracts a large number of nationalities, is about constructive criticism, in this case of Egypt.

No country is above constructive criticism, not even the United States.

I'm not arguing about racism on the 4th of July, I'm stating historical facts of human injustice and prejudice that was historically applied to a certain class of people, as opposed to others, based on the colour of their skin, in America.

I still maintain that the 4th of July should also be a period of reflection as to the freedom that was denied to America's non-whites for a period spanning more than 200 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

You do not even want to aknowledge the historical fact of racial segregation in American history.

Senior members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which is as American an organization as you can get with 500,000 members, have stated the view that the 4th of July should be a period of reflection as well as celebration.

Is the NAACP a bigot organization?

Where the definition of bigotry is:

The attitude, state of mind, or behavior characteristic of a bigot; intolerance.

I suggest that you do some personal, as well as historical self-reflection.